Numerous technical solutions exist for the implementation of wireless communications networks. Many of these involve maintenance of a wireless communications medium for use by user equipment (UE) by deployment of base stations (BS) establishing cells.
Cells can be defined in numerous ways, in any particular communication technology. Indeed, many communications standards offer a number of different types of cell, which can be defined in particular locations to take account of technical need. For instance, terms such as “macrocell”, “microcell”, “picocell”, and “femtocell” have become known in the field, to describe communications facilities established to provide radio service coverage for a UE over particular ranges. Such terms are inevitably inexact, as no guarantee can be given as to the particular range of a base station establishing a macrocell, microcell or picocell, without reference to the location or environment in which the base station is to be placed. Indeed, the terms have been used in different contexts by different service providers and manufacturers.
Moreover, the question as to what constitutes a macrocell, for instance, is not easily determined in purely technical performance terms, as environmental circumstances will affect the capabilities of a particular macrocell BS. For instance, rugged terrain will inhibit or attenuate signals emitted by a macrocell base station, or transmitted thereto. Similar limitations may prevail in installation of a BS for implementation of a microcell or picocell.
It will be noted by the reader particularly that the term “picocell” has been widely adopted as shorthand for BS equipment establishing a relatively short range communication cell implied by the term, rather than, or as well as, the cell itself. This could result in confusion in any discussion, leading to a failure to distinguish between references to the cell or to the BS itself. For reasons of consistency, the term “picocell” is used throughout this disclosure to mean the cellular communication range established by a picocell BS. It will be appreciated by the reader that a BS could be used to establish more than one cell, for example a macrocell and a picocell, and so the illustrated examples herein do not imply that the disclosure only relates to cases where a BS is dedicated to the establishment of a particular type of cell